This guest post by Yolanda A. Facio is part of the VBL Guest Post Month!
It sounds exciting…sitting on the beach with a fruity exotic umbrella drink and tapping away at the keyboard of your laptop, waves crashing 5 feet away, mmmmmmmmm.
Sounds great! But it also sounds very, very far away…
I’m here to tell you it isn’t that far away and to help you change your perception about what being “virtual” really means.
It’s Not about the Beach
Seriously, being virtual isn’t really about the beach and if you focus on the beach you may slowly drift from the idea that it can work for you.
Virtual means not being attached to a business location or office or even a place in general. It’s the idea that you can get your work done without the confines of location. So if you want to go to the beach great, but maybe you just want to head to a park or coffee shop and skip the office altogether.
I like to think of virtual in terms of what works for you and your ideas about lifestyle.
The beach picture is a nice one but I’d rather just hang out with my dogs at the park. Perhaps you are a parent and you want to be able to spend more time with your kids. Maybe you like to golf and want to be able to get your work done and hit the new course in the next town.
It’s About the Design
It comes down to this…design. But not any design. It is the design you make for yourself. That is the beauty of being virtual and mobile. You can design your work life to be whatever you want it to be. It doesn’t have to be my idea of virtual or Chris’ idea of virtual. It has to be your idea of what virtual means and feels like.
When you know exactly what lifestyle choices you want to make and what life choices you want to make about your work, you can begin to sketch out a virtual design that makes sense for you.
Knowing exactly what is important to you and your work and your family and friends and time and all those things that matter to you, you can begin to take solid steps to achieving it.
It’s hard to get behind someone else’s idea of what your virtual work life should be like. It has to come from you. Your idea will stimulate new ideas, get you jazzed up about making it happen, and create the passion you need to make the necessary changes.
All those things help to eliminate the fear you might have about whether or not you can do it. I’m here to tell you it is very achievable!
So you may not end up on a beach somewhere sipping fruity exotic beverages, but you might be at the water park, under an umbrella watching your kids ride the water slide. Where ever you are, when you truly want to be there…it’s really all that matters.
Start Now
Start outlining your virtual business life now. Post it where you can see it and decide to make it happen.
If you can visualize it you can design it. The most important part is to get it down on paper.
Once you know what you want, begin making a list of things you can do, today, to start making it happen. It might be just a phone call setting up wireless technology so that you can work away from the office. Maybe it’s spending the first hour of your day at Starbucks working so that everyone begins to get used to the idea. Maybe you need some help with non-critical tasks that can be outsourced to free up time for you to work only half-days.
Whatever step you take to begin the process is irrelevant. What is important is that you take the first step and the next and the next. As you learn to manage outside your office you’ll begin to see that your office can also manage without you in it.
Entrepreneurs can be a bit on the controlling side, wanting to have a hand in our businesses so that nothing goes wrong. And there will be some discomfort as you begin to spend less time in your office and as you begin to outsource certain activities.
But letting go is just another way of making room for more; more time, more family, more golf, more sailing whatever lifestyle activities you want to do more of. Change is inevitable why not be the catalyst for change in your own life?
If you are ready to take the leap, then just do it. Now, has never been a better time!
Have you started yet? If you’re stuck at starting the journey, tell us why or tell us your successes to help others get started.
Yolanda A. Facio specializes in marketing made easy. She writes about Marketing Basics and Marketing Strategies; her goal is to show you how to “Get The Customer and Skip The Boring Stuff”. Sign up for the free 10 Minute Marketing Motivator – 1 task, 10 minutes: Done!